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Do you rely on intuition or information for decision making?

You are at a crossroads. Your dilemma is whether to keep the job you have or take a chance on a new job with a new company in a new part of the city. You used your smart phone app to gauge the distance to the new job from home and it seems it will add another 20-30 minutes to your commute. But you will get a pay increase and you won’t have to deal with your grumpy boss anymore. You did a thorough Google search of the potential new boss and the company and nothing untoward showed up. He seems to be an okay guy from what you can tell. You texted your friends to get their opinion and they all talk positively about the new company (from the little they know). Most of your research seems to favour the move yet the more information you collect the more confused you become. And now you’re feeling somewhat anxious. Is it fear of change? Possibly. Or is your gut trying to tell you something?

Recent Poll Results

Here are the results of a recent poll we conducted using social media to ask:

Does access to unlimited information via the internet and technology enhance or hinder our ability to use intuition for decision making?

As you can see from these results, 51% of people appreciate having ready access to information to validate our gut instinct and to present new possibilities. Only 10% feel this access can overwhelm our senses while 39% feel that information can both enable and distract us from our ability to trust our gut for decision making. In the example above – let’s call the subject Ashley – now needs to find a quiet place to be alone, where she can enter a relaxed state by taking a few deep breaths, even meditating and ask herself, ‘What is my heart’s desire?’ (What do I really want?) ‘What am I afraid of’? And finally ‘What should I do?’ The answers will come from her intuition, her inner wisdom, which is pure, authentic and right.

How to access your intuitive wisdom

Next time you’re facing a decision like this, use this process; make note of your desired change (describe how you feel, think, your emotions, attitudes etc); research the options and then access your inner wisdom for clarity and focus. Check back to what your gut was telling you about the need for change and see what element of that change now resonates with you in a positive way. Pay attention to your body sensations for clues. Keep track of your success using this process. You might find it difficult at first but it will get easier. And please forward me your intuition success stories by responding to this blog or emailing me at rheaslip@leadership-insight.com. What’s your gut telling you?™

1 thought on “Do you rely on intuition or information for decision making?”

Great post Rebecca, you are right, gut instinct is important. And it’s not just a metaphor for intuition…

Informed by recent Neuroscience findings about the discovery of functional and complex neural networks or ‘brains’ in the heart and gut, we’ve completed 2.5 years of behavioral modeling research on the core competencies of these brains and how they communicate and integrate with the head brain. We’ve written about our findings and the models and techniques in our recently published book ‘mBraining’. See http://www.mbraining.com for more info.

For example, one of the things we’ve uncovered in our work is that much of intuition is processed in both the heart and gut brains, and indeed the gut brain goes through a sleeping cycle each night that mimics and integrates with the equivalent of the head brain. When the head brain is dreaming during REM sleep, the gut brain is undergoing RGM (Rapid Gut Movement) sleep. The research indicates that it is during these periods, that intuitions are being communicated from the gut and heart, via the vagus channels, to the head. There are lots of distinctions and techniques that come out of these insights, and match completely what you’ve been writing and talking about in your post.